“I wrote 63 songs this year. They’re all about Jeter.” Just kidding. The game we love, the players we hate, and more.
From Norman Mailer to Wendy Pepper — everything on film, TV, books, music, and snacks (shut up, raisins), plus the Girls’ Bike Club.
Helping public schools, winning prizes, sending a crazy lady in a tomato costume out in public.
Monologues, travelogues, fiction, and fart humor. And hens. Don’t forget the hens.
The Tomato Nation advice column addresses your questions on etiquette, grammar, romance, and pet misbehavior. Ask The Readers about books or fashion today!
Lotta Ps there.Lotta choices, too, so we apologize in advance for slow load times.Clearing your browser history usually solves any problems with the poll itself.
You may vote for as many selections at once as you like; you may suggest Pepperidge Farm selections only if you see any missing.
I’ve (re-)discovered a few things over the course of the recent Days Of Rage. Some of them are great!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a lonely girl in possession of a library card must be in want of a twin. The child who spends a lot of time in books also spends …
Dear Sars,
Welcome back! Dear cracking dry hands season, not so much. I’m here to ask you/the readers about a product I could swear I saw mentioned on the Vine ages ago, but I can’t find …
Oh lord! I can already tell that this is going to be BAD for me.
I rarely have cookies at home, but I think I will now require some.
I thinks someone needs to open a cookie store, that only sells cookies.
Double chocolate Milanos are my favorite variety.
If possible, it would be handy to post a link to the company website so we can match the cookie with the photo. Others might not have this problem, but I don’t remember names; I just look at the photos when I’m in the cookie aisle.
Just for the record. The only thing I hate worse than commercial “soft-baked” cookies is the fact that my local grocery stores have decided that’s the only variety they’ll stock.
No mint Brussels?? They exist, and they’re amazing.
I had never realized, until I saw this list, just how hoity-toity Pep Farms thinks its cookies are. The Tahoe? Seriously?
Would it be possible to add “Milanos, double chocolate”? They are my very, very favorite PF cookies!
oh boy, it’s disturbing how many Pepperidge Farm cookies I know by name…
I would add the “Mint Brussels” as option, and would strongly encourage everyone to go pick up a bag, right now.
I’m not seeing a link to the poll. Is it just me? :(
…this is odd, I don’t see an option for “all, plus glass of milk”. Something must be wrong.
I voted in allll the oatmeal cookies — just for you, Emerson! ;-D
Mint Brussels!!!!!
Most of the cookies in prelim 1 are pretty specific to Pepperidge Fams so I can see where they get their own mention but in prelim 2 they are pretty much just PF versions of cookies that already exist. Will the final poll have things like PF Snickerdoodles(shortbread/chocolate chip) up against real (homemade) Snickerdoodles(shortbread/chocolate chip)?
If possible, it would be handy to post a link to the company website so we can match the cookie with the photo.
You can just Google “Pepperidge Farm.” It’s not that obscure.
No mint Brussels?? They exist, and they’re amazing.
All Brusselses got grouped together; some Milanos got cut for space.
I’m not seeing a link to the poll. Is it just me?
It’s taking up about 17 hectares of homepage. Try refreshing tomatonation.com.
I don’t see an option for “all, plus glass of milk”
I hate milk. There you go.
Will the final poll have things like PF Snickerdoodles (shortbread/chocolate chip) up against real (homemade) Snickerdoodles (shortbread/chocolate chip)?
Probably not; if it’s represented elsewhere in the bracket, we won’t duplicate it in the homemade/bakery section. Otherwise the generic/homemade always wins, so what’s the point. Not 100 percent on that at this point, though.
I didn’t realize that the poll doesn’t re-rank according to what’s “winning” when you hit “vote”; that’s kind of beat. I’ll try to tweak that for the next set of polls.
I’m so curious to see how this will turn out. Now with the mention of it, I’m wondering how the home-baked section will go. It seems that you’d run out of cookies that won’t be used somewhere else.
How have I not heard of any of these? Do we not have them in Canada?
It would be great if there was a “none of these” option in each poll — There’s nothing in the second poll that I would vote for, but the only way to vote is to vote for at least one.
Tricia, with that soft-baked admission, you and I are going to be best friends. I could not agree more. I retch over soft-baked. In fact, when Bunting and I were doing the lists, I do recall saying, “Fuck soft-baked!” but admitted we had to have them in.
I’ve said before, I like ’em hard and to save you all the trouble: THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!
THERE ARE MINT BRUSSELS IN THIS WORLD?!? I didn’t know that!!! A technicality that will shortly be remedied. (tm Prince Humperdinck)
My Pepperidge Farm tastes apparently run pretty mainstream…both of my top choices have the most votes!
I don’t really like Chessmen as compared to other PF cookies, but I have fond childhood memories of them, because PF had a limited edition Star Wars chessmen-style cookie when I was a kid, where instead of chess pieces, they were Luke and Leia and Yoda and they were awesome.
Now with the mention of it, I’m wondering how the home-baked section will go. It seems that you’d run out of cookies that won’t be used somewhere else.
Agreed.
And I’m with Keckler and Tricia on the soft-baked. I love most of the cookies on the second list but I would go without them forever if my only option was the Pepperidge Farm version. Shortbread? Exquisite. PF version – why waste the calories? It seemd like it would torpedo the chances for some of the best types of cookies.
Unless there will be a gone but not forgotten division that out ranks manufacturer, where is the PF Capri (I think they were called). It was a chocolate with nuts sandwich cookie with an Oreo like filling.
@Keckler: Besties 4evah!
This is going to be deadly. I was at the store last night, and decided to check out some of the other PF varieties (I tend to go straight for the Milanos and Brussels.) I bought some Mango Peach Veronas, and oh man are they delicious. I highly recommend them, and they have other flavors, if you don’t like Mango or Peach.
Based on winners of the Ice Cream and Cereal Brackets, I can’t imagine that Oreos won’t win this one.
I’m with the anti-soft baked crowd. Those cookies always smell bad when they come out of the bag. Why is that??
Soft Baked cookies are full of FAIL. Alton Brown’s “thin and crispy” is where it’s at.
I’ll be interested to see how you deal with different versions of the same basic cookie, because (for example) my all-time favorites are various homemade or bakery versions of chocolate chip, but I’m not especially fond of Chips Ahoy and would hate to see them represent the entire genre.
It seems like it should either be an ALL STORE BOUGHT challenge, or a ALL HOMEMADE challenge, becuase like someone else said, Chips Ahoy can’t end up being the rep for all chocolate chip cookies, if there’s a possibility that homemade COULD be in the polls.
There could be a whole section on JUST chocolate chip.
HA. I was just coming to comment, all fired up, about how under NO circumstances do I support soft baked cookies and I find people have already done it for me. Gotta love the Tomato Nation!
I have to say that I am heartily relieved by the poor showing that Veronas & Montieris are making. Ew to the jammy cookies. Blerf.
I also have to agree with those who hate on soft-baked. Cookies that have just come out of the oven are soft. Packaged cookies that have a nuclear winter-type shelf life should not be soft. This implies that the amount of chemicals & preservatives in them is probably enough to embalm a small animal, and should not under any circumstances be consumed by humans.
Finally, is it just me, or does anyone else start singing “C is for Cookie” when voting?
I understand and accept having to cut for space, but I’m pretty sad to see that raspberry Milanos didn’t even make the preliminary rounds.
oh Mint Brussels! I forgot all about those. Mostly had them in the variety packs. Since I tend to stick with Mint Milanos and haven’t branched out, I predict the research I’ll need to do so that I can make an informed vote is going to result in me gaining at least 8 pounds. : ) Maybe I can organize cookie tastings at a local bar!
I must be the only one who actually likes the “soft-baked” stuff. I’d prefer homemade, certainly, and I agree about the grody chemical taste and the suspicion that horse hooves or Spam or something else unsavory is employed in making them “soft” — but I still tend to prefer them to the crispy variety. Well, of certain cookies…the big Pepperidge Farm chocolate-chip ones, I only like the soft. Chips Ahoy, I can’t abide the regular kind (they taste like cardboard), but I like the soft ones in the red box…relatively speaking. Something like Milanos, on the other hand, I’d probably barf if I bit into one and it was soft.
Thinking about it further, I think it’s really just that I don’t like *chocolate-chip* cookies to be crispy. All other kinds, I’m good.
I also go for the double-chocolate Milanos, because, I mean, why would you NOT want the extra chocolate? That said, I voted for regular Milanos because I figure the double-chocolate are basically that, only with enhanced deliciousness; they’re not really a different flavor.
@Tisha_ these are all store-bought.
Because if there were a truly home-made category my Mom’s oatmeal-raisin cookie recipe would slay everything in its path. They’re that good.
Sars, have you considered a home-made cookie playoff? We’d all have to send in a dozen or two so that you & Keckler could judge them properly. And each playoff round would require fresh cookies – you wouldn’t want to judge stale ones, right? Just a thought…Hee.
OK am I crazy?? Where exactly are the polls located? All the links I click on just take me to the Pepperidge Farm and the Kebler pages where you are talking about the prelim votes. I have no “vote here” link on anything.
I know it’s just a cookie but dang I want to vote!! :)
The polls are right in the entries on the front page. If you can’t see them, you have a cache problem and need to clear your browser history.
NB: I cleared the results for the second Keebler poll and added Vienna Fingers. Sorry for the oversight! I can’t believe we forgot those things; I love them.
Margaret, I just saw your comment. I think I showed my hand too early…:)
Also, I love these comments about “soft-baked” as a category. They capture my thoughts on such cookies better than I ever could.
Tulip – If you have an old version of Internet Explorer (as I do at work since our company won’t let us download the current version), you can’t see the polls (or at least I couldn’t). I was also randomly clicking on every link that mentioned the NCookieAA trying to find the polls without success, but when I saw it at home in a current browser they were very obvious on the home page.
I’m with CJB on the soft-baked issue. Guess that makes 2 of us! Never realized people could *not* like them, even if they do smell funny sometimes.